Have One On Me

On her debut album, Joanna Newsom seemed almost a novelty: a harp-plucking pixie with an exaggeratedly babyish voice. Then its follow-up, Ys, featured Van Dyke Parks' elaborate orchestral arrangements and epic-length songs suggesting both impressive ambition and little desire to connect with anything beyond a dedicated cult. The ambition remains on Have One On Me -- a three-CD set with a two-hour running time -- but from the title's friendly overture onwards, this is Newsom's most immediately accessible work. By no means a bid for mainstream pop stardom, Have One On Me joins the pantheon of classic art-rock albums by female singer-songwriters, such as Judee Sill's Heart Food, Joni Mitchell's Hejira or Kate Bush's Hounds of Love: albums where expansive, richly detailed sound meets personal, intimate lyrics. Recorded with Newsom's touring band plus a small orchestra's worth of horns and strings, nearly a third of the songs find Newsom playing piano instead of her signature harp. Similarly, Newsom's earlier baby-talk affectations have all but disappeared in favor of a warmer and much less mannered vocal delivery, and her lyrics feel more emotionally revealing: "Easy," with its key line "Who died and made you in charge of who loves who?" is an early frontrunner for 2010's best breakup song.